Cut-off machine



June 2, 1970 CUT-OFF MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 24. 1967 A TTORNzE r5 T i .T mm M T M Z mm H C NNN m w m June 2, 1970 c. "r. EVERETT3,514,906

CUT-OFF MACHINE Filed Nov. 24. 19s? :2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l ne. 2.

INVENTOR. CHARLES T EVERETT j/dim M/ Qw A TTORNE Y6 United States PatentM vs. C1. 51-99 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An abrasive cut-offmachine for disposition in an enclosed space and having a hollow,substantially totally enclosed base on which a rotatably mounted,abrasive cut-off Wheel is transversely movable toward and away fromstock to be severed. The base has an opening ad jacent the cut-off wheelfor receiving waste products of the cutting operation and a high volumeair moving device has its inlet communicating with the interior of thebase and its outlet communicating with the exterior of the enclosedspace in which the machine is disposed. The air moving device createsbelow atmospheric pressure within the base for drawing the Wasteproducts of the cutting operation into the base through the base openingand such device discharges smoke and fumes to the exterior of the spacein which the machine is disposed while solid particles are trappedwithin the base for removal at appropriate intervals.

PREAMBLE The time honored device for severing a metal rod or tube to adesired length has been a metal saw. Such a device, however, even whenpower operated, is slow. Moreover, some of the harder metal alloyscannot be cut with a saw. For high speed, accurate cutting, a devicewhich employs a rapidly rotating abrasive disk has been found quitesatisfactory in many respects since such a device will satisfactorilycut virtually all materials, even many nonmetallic materials, leaving asmooth, virtually machined surface.

A device using an abrasive cutting disk, however, creates considerablesolid debris along with smoke and odors, especially when non-metallicmaterials are being cut. In an attempt to control the undesirableproducts of abrasive disk cutting, abrasive disk machines have floodedthe cutting operation with water. While this expedient controls thesolid debris, it has little effect on smoke and odors which are stilldischarged into the space in which the machine is located. Additionally,a wet cutting process is notoriously sloppy since it is virtuallyimpossible to prevent splashing of the water and thus the area about themachine becomes wet. The wet area can, of course, constitute a hazardfrom electrical shock or loss of footing. Finally, since the splashedwater contains the solid debris in suspension, such debris is scatteredabout the machine and can create a health hazard when the water driesand the fine particles are free to escape into the atmosphere.

In contrast, the present invention provides for dry,- abrasive diskcutting with none of the disadvantages of prior art dry or wet devices.These advantages Will readily become apparent from a study of thefollowing description and from the drawings appended hereto.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS In the drawings accompanying this specificationand forming a part of this application there is shown, for purpose ofillustration, an embodiment which the invention may assume, and in thesedrawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of apparatus embodying the presentinvention,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view similar to FIG. 1 but of the 3,514,906Patented June 2, 1970 opposite side of the apparatus, parts on the nearside being removed to show the underlying structure and certainoperating parts being shown in another position from that of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view generally corresponding to the line 3-3 ofFIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION With reference to the drawings, the apparatusillustrating the invention comprises a hollow base 10 having respectiveupper and lower walls 11 and 12, respective front and rear walls 13 and14, and respective side walls 15 and 16. Mounted on the base top wall 11adjacent the rear wall 14 and the side wall 16 are a pair of spacedapart, upstanding pivot stands 17 which pivotally support an arm 18therebetween. Arm 18 has a rear portion 18.1 on which an electric motor19 is mounted and a front portion 18.2 whose free end terminates in arotatable shaft 20. Mounted on shaft 20 on the near side of arm 18, asviewed in FIG. 2, is an abrasive cut-olf wheel 21. On the far side ofarm 18, shaft 20* carries a pulley which is connected with the motor 19by a suitable drive belt 22 enclosed in a protective guard 23. Carriedby arm 18 and partially enclosing cut-off wheel 21 is a semi-circularguard or housing 24 whose lower portion is open to expose the wheel.With the construction thus far disclosed, it will be understood that thearm 18 is tiltable about the pivot provided by the stands 17 to swingthe cut-off wheel 21 toward and away from the base top 11.

Mounted on the top 11 of the base 10' beneath the cutoff wheel 21 is aV-shaped anvil 25 for supporting a workpiece W to be cut. Anvil 25 isprovided with a slot 25.1 for receiving the wheel when the latter islowered to cutting position. Although not shown, a suitable clamp may beprovided to securely hold the workpiece in position on the anvil and ahandle 26 is attached to the arm 18 so that an operator may lower thewheel to cutting position.

Formed in the top wall 11 of the base 10 intermediate the anvil 25 andthe rear wall 14 of the base is an elongated opening 27 which is alignedwith the rotational axis of the cut-off wheel 21. Disposed about theopening 27 is an upstanding housing 28 having a rear wall 28.1 andopposed side walls 28.2, 28.3 being proportioned to telescopicallyreceive the wheel housing therebetween. Housing 28 is also open adjacentthe anvil 25 and the adjoining housing side walls 28.2, 28.3 are turnedoutwardly for a purpose to appear.

In addition to the opening 27 in the base top 11, an opening 29 isformed in the front wall 13 of the base adjacent the anvil 25 and inalignment with the rotational axis of the cut-off wheel 21. Disposedabout the opening 29 is an upstanding housing 30 having an inclinedlower wall 30.1, a front wall 30.2, and opposed side walls 30.3, 30.4.Similar to housing 28, housing 30 is open at the top to receive thewheel housing 24 and the spacing between the housing side walls 30.3,30.4 is such that the wheel housing is telescopically receivedtherebetween.

Attached to the base side wall 15 is a blower assembly 31 having aninlet 32 aligned with a circular aper;

ture 33 in the wall 15 and an outlet 31.1 adapted to communicateexteriorly of the space in which the apparatus is located. Normally,with the apparatus disposed within a building, outlet 31.1 willcommunicate with the exterior of such building. It is to be noted thatthe base aperture 33 is spaced away from the base openings 2,7, 29 andwell above the base lower wall 12 for a purpose to appear. Preferably,the upper part of the base interior will be divided from side-to-side bya depending bafile plate 34. The lower margin of such plate, however, isspaced well above the base lower wal for reasons to appear.

A blower assembly having a rated moving capacity of no less than about800 cubic feet per minute has been found to operate satisfactorily andwhen such blower assembly is operating, air will be evacuated from theinterior of the base and discharged to the exterior via the bloweroutlet 31.1. Air under normal atmospheric pressure will, of course,enter the base via the openings 27, 29 and, because of the relativelysmall area of these openings, such entering air will be traveling atquite high velocity. Upon entry of such air into the relatively largehollow base, the velocity of the air will decrease, it will pass underthe bafile plate 34, and be discharged to the outside through the bloweroutlet.

Assuming operation of the blower assembly to evacuate the base as abovedescribed, assuming a workpiece has been clamped to the anvil 25 withthe arm 18 titled to elevate the cut-oil wheel from workpiece engagementas shown in FIG. 1, and further assuming rotation of the cut-off wheelin a clockwise direction in the position of parts seen in FIG. 1(counterclockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2), the cutting operationwill proceed as follows:

By means of the handle 26, the operator will tilt the arm 18 to lowerthe cut-oil wheel to engagement with the underlying workpiece as viewedin FIG. 2 and will progressively lower the wheel until the workpiece hasbeen severed. During the cutting operation, a considerable amount ofdebris is generated. The debris may consist of solid particles cut fromthe workpiece, solid abrasive particles torn from the cut-off wheel, andsmoke and odors caused by deterioration of the bonding agent used in theconstruction of the cut-off wheel.

The larger and heavier portions of the debris aforesaid will travelgenerally tangentially of the wheel 21 from its place of engagement withthe workpieces as shown by arrows 35 in FIG. 2. Much of such debris willtravel directly through the opening 27, some will strike the wheel guard24 and be deflected through the opening, while some will impinge uponthe rear wall 28.1 of the base housing 28 and thereafter gravitate intothe base through the opening 27. In any event, the high velocity airflow through the opening 27 will insure that substantially all of thedebris moving in the general direction of the arrows 35 will be drawnthrough such opening.

While the larger and heavier debris portions will move along the path 35as above disclosed, the smaller and lighter debris potrions will tend totravel in a counter-clockwise direction within the housing 24 with therotating wheel 21. Such debris portions will, however escape from thewheel housing as shown by the arrows 36 and be diverted by the basehousing 30 through the opening 29. Here again, the high velocity airmoving through such opening will insure that virtually all debrisportions moving along the path 36 will be drawn through the opening 29.

It is to be noted that since the wheel housing 24 is a relatively closefit between the side walls of the base housings 28, 30, a considerablequantity of air will be drawn into the openings 27, 29 through the spacebetween the base top wall 11 and the intermediate, lower portion of thewheel housing 24. This large air movement will, of course, tend toprevent escape of debris in a direction axially of the workpiece beingsevered.

As the air moves through the base openings 27, 29 into the relativelylarge space within the base 10, the velocity of the air will decreasewhereupon the larger and heavier debris particles will drop to the floorof the base. The air within the base, now devoid of such large debrisparticles, will pass beneath the bafile plate 34 and be discharged tothe exterior via the blower outlet 31.1 carrying with it all smoke,odors, and some of the vary fine debris particles. As will be evident,the bafile plate insures that air entering the base through the baseopenings 27, 29 will not pass directly to the blower inlet 32 whichcould result in a reduction in the amount of debris which falls out ofthe air stream and is collected in the bottom of the base.

At suitable intervals, the base may be emptied of its collected debrisby first removing an access panel, not shown, in the lower portion ofone of the base upstanding walls. With such panel removed, the collecteddebris may be removed by a shovel or the like for disposition in anyconvenient manner.

While the use of a baffle plate 34 has herein been disclosed, it is tobe understood that such baffle may be omitted so long as the air inletof the blower assembly is spaced from the place where the debris entersthe base and most importantly, is offset from the plane of rotation ofthe cut-off wheel so that high speed debris travel caused by the cuttingoperation does not carry such debris directly to the blower assemblyinlet.

In view of the foregoing it will be apparent to those skilled in the artthat I have accomplished at least the principal object of my inventionand it will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that theembodiment herein described may be variously changed and modified,without departing from the spirit of the invention, and that theinvention is capable of uses and has advantages not herein specificallydescribed; hence it will be appreciated that the herein disclosedembodiment is illustrative only, and that my invention is not limitedthereto.

I claim:

1. An abrasive cut-off machine for disposition in an enclosed space andproviding a rotatably mounted cutoff wheel transversely movable towardand away from cutting relation with stock to be severed, the improvementcomprising an anvil for supporting the stock to be severed andpositioned in the path of wheel transverse movement,

means providing a pair of inlet openings on opposite sides of said anviland in the plane of said cut-off wheel,

a housing enclosing said cut-01f wheel for confining the waste productsproduced by the cutting operation and said housing being open adjacentsaid anvil for communication with said openings,

and a high volume air moving device having its inlet communicating withsaid pair of inlet openings and its outlet communicating with theexterior of said enclosed space, said air moving device creating belowatmospheric pressure at said inlet openings for drawing waste productsof the cutting operation such as smoke, fumes and particles through saidopenings and for discharging at least some of said waste products to theexterior of said space.

2. The construction of claim 1 wherein at least one of said inletopenings is elongated in the plane of wheel rotation.

3. The construction of claim 1 wherein said cut-off wheel is mounted ona hollow, substantially totally enclosed base,

wherein said inlet openings are formed in said base,

and wherein the inlet of said air moving device communicates with theinterior of said base.

4. The construction of claim 3 wherein one of said inlet openings is atleast partially outlined by a base housing which is open adjacent saidcut-off wheel,

and wherein said base housing is proportioned to receive said wheelhousing in telescoping relation.

5. The construction of claim 3 wherein siad anvil is at the top of saidbase and adjacent one side thereof,

and wherein one of said inlet openings is formed in the top of said baseand the other is formed in said base one side.

6. The construction of claim 5 wherein said other in- 5 let opening isat least partially outlined by a base housing which is open adjacentsaid cut-off wheel,

and wherein such base housing is proportioned to receive said wheelhousing in telescoping relation. 7. The construction of claim 5 whereinboth of said inlet openings are at least partially outlined byrespective 5 base housings which are open adjacent said cut-01f wheel,and wherein said base housings are proportioned to receive said wheelhousings in telescoping relation.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 776,156 11/1904 Venderbush 512732,384,414 9/1945 Antrirn 51273 X 6 2,565,510 8/1951 Martin 512732,683,958 7/ 1954 Schneible 51273 2,763,972 9/ 1956 White 51-273 FOREIGNPATENTS 1,133,999 7/ 1962 Germany.

LESTER M. SWINGLE, Primary Examiner 0 D. G. KELLY, Assistant ExaminerUS. Cl. X.R.

